The Dictatorship
Trump’s time-bending claim about the Iran war is truly absurd
The Trump administration told Congress Thursday that the legislative branch doesn’t need to worry about authorizing the war with Iran that President Donald Trump launched two months ago. The War Powers Resolution says that a president only has 60 days after deploying U.S. military forces to either fully withdraw those forces or get formal approval from legislators for the campaign to continue. Despite hitting that deadline Friday, the White House is now saying that as far as it’s concerned, the hostilities that began two months ago are “terminated,” leaving no reason for Congress to act.
The result is a quantum-flux state of play regarding the Iran war that’s as absurd as it is illegal.
It’s a confounding sentiment given the U.S. warships still blockading Iranian ports and the possibility that Trump could launch a new round of strikes at any time. But time has clearly become flexible to the Trump administration and its allies. Depending on who you ask, and when, America’s war against Iran is simultaneously ongoing and doesn’t exist; it began 60 days ago but also 40 years ago. The war ended in early April, but our “warfighters” still need unconditional support to achieve victory.
The result is a quantum-flux state of play regarding the Iran war that’s as absurd as it is illegal. The conflicting arguments stretch the limits of credulity in hopes of avoiding laws meant to prevent America being dragged into a conflict with no end — and, in this case, seemingly no real beginning.
When Trump announced the joint U.S.-Israeli bombing against Iran, there was immediate concern that at no point had he tried to get authorization from Congress ahead of the strikes beginning. Hegseth claimed during one of his first press conferences after the campaign began that the U.S. “didn’t start this war,” implying it was an act of self-defense despite the U.S. being the one with fighter jets flying sorties.
More confounding was the claim from the State Department’s legal advisor that the hostilities with Iran merely continue a conflict ongoing since 1979. Despite there being a ceasefire for talks after last June’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, the State Department’s analysis claims that “if a conflict has not ended, then it must be ongoing.” (Keep that in mind for two paragraphs from now.)
The White House formally notified Congress about the military deployment on March 2, starting the 60-day clock for approval. While never fully clarifying the war’s goals, the White House halted airstrikes on April 7 when both sides agreed to a ceasefire. Since then, there have been muddled negotiations between Iran and the U.S. and a last-minute extension from Trump as the original two-week pause reached its end. But throughout the off-and-on peace talks, the U.S. has maintained a naval blockade of Iranian ports and Iran has continued to choke off trade in the Strait of Hormuz.
Incredibly, when asked about the War Powers Resolution deadline during a Senate hearing Thursday, Hegseth claimed that it was a moot point. While deferring to the White House counsel’s judgement, the defense secretary claimed, “we are in a cease fire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a cease fire.” Hegseth’s statement echoed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s words to NBC News earlier that day: “We are not at war.”
Johnson’s refusal to acknowledge Congress’ role in declaring war is troubling on its own. But it pales next to the administration’s efforts to avoid the War Powers Resolution’s clear requirement when congressional approval is lacking: “terminate any use of United States Armed Forces” regarding the conflict after 60 days. As Just Security noted“this withdrawal of U.S. forces occurs by operation of law – that is, according to pre-existing terms of the statute, without any further action by Congress.” It’s supposed to be up to Trump to convince Congress to let the troops stay engaged in hostilities at this point, not Congress’ job to force him to remove them.
Moreover, simply claiming that there’s no fighting isn’t the same as the war endingrum
Moreover, simply claiming that there’s no fighting isn’t the same as the war ending. Previous administrations have claimed under something called “intermittence theory” that the clock starts and stops with each discrete set of military strikes. But a ceasefire is not a lasting peace, and the War Powers Resolution only speaks of “hostilities” ongoing, not armed conflict. In other words, under the law, if U.S. forces are deployed. nobody needs to be firing shots for the clock to keep ticking.
Meanwhile, the continued blockade of Iranian ports is unquestionably an act of war under international law, not to mention an action that is putting U.S. service members at risk of being drawn into renewed combat. Trump is also reportedly considering a renewed round of attacks to force the re-opening of the strait or convince Iran to hand over its stockpile of enriched uranium. Under his administration’s interpretation of the law, the U.S. breaking the ceasefire would merely resume the clock with weeks left before needing authorization — or potentially restart it entirely.
As Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Berkeley law school, recently wrote in The New York Timesit is imperative that the courts “simply hold that the War Powers Resolution requires the president to end our involvement in the war with Iran unless and until Congress authorizes it.” Until that happens, Congress’s power to declare war, already weakened, has been made effectively irrelevant. Instead, we live in a world the White House will keep trying to argue that a war that lasts for 10 months is the same as one that lasts 60 days is the same as one that’s lasted forty 40 years is the same as one that only lasted 40 days.
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He focuses on politics and policymaking at the federal level, including Congress and the White House.
A federal judge in Washington has denied a bid Wednesday brought by a watchdog group to immediately block the Justice Department’s “anti-weaponization” fund, for now choosing to trust the department’s assertions that it is not moving forward with the fund.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled immediately, denying Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have blocked the Department of Justice from taking steps to create the fund.
Throughout the 30-minute hearing, the DOJ reiterated that the administration was not moving forward with the nearly $1.8 billion fund, which seeks to compensate individuals who allege they have been politically targeted or victimized by the DOJ.
Andrew Block, the only lawyer present for the government, repeatedly cited Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s June 2 congressional testimonyin which he said the administration was “not moving forward” with plans to create the fund.
Leon indicated he agreed with the DOJ’s position that the case appeared to be moot, saying he was not persuaded there was an issue for the court to decide regarding the creation of the fund. He issued a stern warning to the DOJ, saying, “Don’t play possum with this court!” — meaning he does not want to be deceived.
The plaintiffs argued Blanche’s testimony did not amount to an official cancellation. Nikhel Sus, CREW’s attorney, said Blanche “refused to memorialize that rescission,” or in other words, put it in writing. Sus said that was “highly unusual.” Leon responded, “This whole case is highly unusual to say the least.”
Leon asked the government twice why they would not just rescind the order that established the fund. Block responded, “I don’t know,” and pointed again to Blanche’s public statements about the fund’s future.
Both Leon and Sus raised the issue of Trump’s continued public defense of the fund. “It can still be an important issue and also not moving forward,” Block said. “That isn’t a direction to move forward with the fund.”
Although Leon rejected CREW’s bid for an immediate block, he indicated he is still considering its request for a longer-term block against the fund.
A block order from a separate federal judge in Virginia remains in effect until at least Friday.
Fallon Gallagher is a legal affairs reporter for MS NOW.
The date when Social Security’s trust fund is expected to run out of money just got bumped up. The fund is now projected to empty in 2032according to a new report released by Social Security’s trustees.
The new depletion date isn’t an earth-shaking change — it’s only a quarter earlier than the estimate in last year’s report. But it illustrates how President Donald Trump’s policies are degrading a program he promised to never jeopardize — and accelerating an approaching crisis in how our government will assist the elderly and disabled.
The report names three factors that contributed to the earlier insolvency date. One is a declining fertility rate, but the other two drivers can be traced back to Trump: a drop in immigration into the country, and the “substantial effect” of the tax policies in the One Big Beautiful Bill he signed last summer.
Trump’s acceleration of the program’s insolvency comes atop his assaults on the program’s administrative capacities.
Reduced immigration during Trump’s second term — especially when coupled with a declining fertility rate — strains Social Security because the program is funded through payroll taxes. Those come out of people’s paychecks, and fewer workers supporting an aging population means the program receives less revenue. Indeed, Social Security already has been tapping its trust fund for the better part of the past two decades because the program’s costs have exceeded its cash income. And as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities pointed out last yearlast year’s tax cuts were a boon to the rich but a bust for the solvency of the Social Security trust fund.
To be clear, if the fund is depleted, Social Security won’t go belly up. Benefits will continue to be paid out, but there will be a large drop in the amount. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the “average monthly cut would total $500, which is more than what the average retired household spends on groceries each month.”
That would be a huge blow to the budgets of many older Americans. Social Security is a major source of income for most retirees, and roughly 40% of beneficiaries over the age of 65 rely on it for most of their income. And it would mark the destabilization of the sole source of retirement security for most Americans that is supposed to be insulated from ups and downs — unlike 401K plans. As the CBPP has pointed outSocial Security is “most workers’ only source of guaranteed retirement income that is not subject to investment risk or financial market fluctuations.”
Trump’s acceleration of the program’s insolvency comes atop his assaults on the program’s administrative capacities. His cuts to the Social Security Administration have left offices understaffedincreased wait timesand reduced quality of customer service.
Ultimately, Trump is exacerbating a colossal social safety net problem that predates him, and the trust fund will hit dire straits after he has left office. Democrats need to have clear plans for shoring up the program and making it robust for the future — which will require not being sheepish about taxes as a tool for renewing the social contract. And when Republicans try to claim that they, too, are champions of Social Security, all Democrats need to do is point to the truth.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy.
Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The latest from Northern Ireland: “The family of a man who lost an eye in a knife attack appealed for calm on Wednesday after the incident triggered a wave of anti-immigrant violence in Belfast overnight, with masked men burning families out of their homes and torching vehicles. The appeal came as a Sudanese man appeared in court charged with attempted murder and as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and politicians in Northern Ireland condemned the violence by ‘masked thugs’ that had targeted ethnic minorities.”
* In related news: “The British government hit out at X owner Elon Musk Wednesday, accusing him of whipping up tensions online ahead of disorder in Belfast.”
* The tenuous state of a dubious ceasefire: “Trump said the U.S. is going to hit Iran ‘hard’ today when pressed by reporters in the Oval Office about his statement earlier that Tehran will ‘pay the price’ for taking ‘too long’ to reach a peace agreement. ‘Well, we’re going to be attacking them and attacking them very hard, resuming bombing,’ he said.”
* The latest casualty figures from Lebanon: “Israel’s military offensive in Lebanon has killed at least 3,666 people, including 131 healthcare workers, and injured more than 11,300 since the U.S. and Israel began their war with Iran in late February, the Lebanese health ministry reported yesterday.”
* The changing nature of modern warfare: “Ukraine is wreaking havoc on unarmored trucks and trains in the battlefield’s rear, using drones with upgraded engines and batteries, integrated Starlink communication systems and new artificial-intelligence capabilities. The ramped-up attacks are causing fuel shortages, complicating troop rotations and reducing Russian military activity on the front.”
* This seems like a reasonable request: “Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee demanded Wednesday that Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s controversial pick for acting director of national intelligence, submit to a full security check before assuming the post, including an examination of his financial holdings and foreign contacts.”
* Some market trends can’t be stopped despite the White House’s best efforts: “Even as President Donald Trump boosts coal over clean energy, solar power is hitting new milestones in the U.S. and remains the leading source of new power. Data released Wednesday by global energy think tank Ember, along with a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie, show the continued growth of solar and decline of coal in the United States despite federal policy. In May, for the first time, solar supplied more of the nation’s electricity than coal, or 12.8%, Ember said.”
* A bizarre schedule for a nonemergency vanity project: “Federal officials are laying more groundwork to begin construction on President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot-tall triumphal arch, sharing additional documents that detail the project’s scope and an aggressive timetable for potentially completing work before Trump’s term ends. According to National Park Service documents posted this month, the administration envisions 20 hours per day of construction on the arch, year-round, in hopes of completing the project within two to three years.”
See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
- Senate Democrats’ political fortunes have improved. ‘It didn’t happen by accident,’ Schumer says.
- Trump’s coal vision lifts MAGA organizer with scant energy track record
- Trump wants you to know this RFK Jr. aide’s name
- Senate Democrats’ political fortunes have improved. ‘It didn’t happen by accident,’ Schumer says.
- Senate Democrats’ political fortunes have improved. ‘It didn’t happen by accident,’ Schumer says.
- US to reach $41T debt ceiling as soon as late winter, forecasters predict
- The small-town voters deciding the UK’s future are demanding change, our focus group found
- Lee Zeldin on rising gas prices, energy dominance and AI data centers
- US to reach $41T debt ceiling as soon as late winter, forecasters predict
- Chuck Schumer is ready for redemption
-
Politics1 year agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
Politics1 year agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
Politics1 year agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship9 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words